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Few artists have created a body of work
as rich and varied as Prince. During the '80s, he emerged as one
of the most singular talents of the rock & roll era, capable of
seamlessly tying together pop, funk, folk, and rock. Not only
did he release a series of groundbreaking albums, he toured frequently,
produced albums and wrote songs for many other artists, and recorded
hundreds of songs that still lie unreleased in his vaults. With
each album he released, Prince has shown remarkable stylistic
growth and musical diversity, constantly experimenting with different
sounds, textures, and genres. Occasionally, his music can be maddeningly
inconsistent because of this eclecticism, but his experiments
frequently succeed; no other contemporary artist can blend so
many diverse styles into a cohesive whole.
Prince's first two albums were solid, if unremarkable, late-'70s
funk-pop. With 1980's Dirty Mind, he recorded his first masterpiece,
a one-man tour de force of sex and music; it was hard funk, catchy
Beatlesque melodies, sweet soul ballads, and rocking guitar pop,
all at once. The follow-up, Controversy, was more of the same,
but 1999 was brilliant. The album was a monster hit, selling over
three million copies, but it was nothing compared to 1984's Purple
Rain.
Purple Rain made Prince a superstar; it eventually sold over ten
million copies in the U.S. and spent 24 weeks at number one. Partially
recorded with his touring band the Revolution, the record featured
the most pop-oriented music he has ever made. Instead of continuing
in this accessible direction, he veered off into the bizarre psycho-psychedelia
of Around the World in a Day, which nevertheless sold over two
million copies. In 1986, he released the even stranger Parade,
which was in its own way as ambitious and intricate as any art
rock of the '60s; however, no art rock was ever grounded with
a hit as brilliant as the spare funk of "Kiss."
By 1987, Prince's ambitions were growing by leaps and bounds,
resulting in the sprawling masterpiece Sign 'O' the Times. Prince
was set to release the hard funk of The Black Album by the end
of the year, yet he withdrew it just before its release, deciding
it was too dark and immoral. Instead, he released the confused
Lovesexy in 1988, which was a commercial disaster. With the soundtrack
to 1989's Batman he returned to the top of the charts, even if
the album was essentially a recap of everything he had done before.
The following year he released Graffiti Bridge, the sequel to
Purple Rain, which turned out to be a considerable commercial
disappointment.
In 1991, Prince formed the New Power Generation, the best and
most versatile and talented band he has ever assembled. With their
first album, Diamonds and Pearls, Prince reasserted his mastery
of contemporary R&B; it was his biggest hit since 1985. The following
year, he released his 12th album, which was titled with a cryptic
symbol; in 1993, Prince legally changed his name to the symbol.
In 1994, after becoming embroiled in contract disagreements with
Warner Bros., he independently released the single "The Most Beautiful
Girl in the World," likely to illustrate what he would be capable
of on his own; the song became his biggest hit in years. Later
that summer, Warner released the somewhat halfhearted Come under
the name of Prince; the record was a moderate success, going gold.
In November 1994, as part of a contractual obligation, Prince
agreed to the official release of The Black Album. In early 1995,
he immersed himself in another legal battle with Warner, proclaiming
himself a slave and refusing to deliver his new record, The Gold
Experience, for release. By the end of the summer, a fed-up Warner
had negotiated a compromise that guaranteed the album's release,
plus one final record for the label. The Gold Experience was issued
in the fall; although it received good reviews and was following
a smash single, it failed to catch fire commercially. In the summer
of 1996, Prince released Chaos & Disorder, which freed him to
become an independent artist. Setting up his own label, NPG (which
was distributed by EMI), he resurfaced later that same year with
the three-disc Emancipation, which was designed as a magnum opus
that would spin off singles for several years and be supported
with several tours.
However, even his devoted cult following needed considerable time
to digest such an enormous compilation of songs. Once it was clear
that Emancipation wasn't the commercial blockbuster he hoped it
would be, Prince assembled a long-awaited collection of outtakes
and unreleased material called Crystal Ball in 1998. With Crystal
Ball, Prince discovered that it's much more difficult to get records
to an audience than it seems; some fans who pre-ordered their
copies through Prince's website (from which a bonus fifth disc
was included) didn't receive them until months after the set began
appearing in stores. Prince then released a new one-man album,
New Power Soul, just three months after Crystal Ball; even though
it was his most straightforward album since Diamonds and Pearls,
it didn't do well on the charts, partly because many listeners
didn't realize it had been released.
A year later, with "1999" predictably an end-of-the-millennium
anthem, Prince issued the remix collection 1999 (The New Master).
A collection of Warner Bros.-era leftovers, Vault: Old Friends
4 Sale, followed that summer, and in the fall Prince returned
on Arista with the all-star Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic.
In the fall of 2001 he released the controversial Rainbow Children,
a jazz-infused circus of sound trumpeting his conversion to the
Jehovah's Witnesses that left many longtime fans out in the cold.
He further isolated himself with 2003's N.E.W.S., a four-song
set of instrumental jams that sounded a lot more fun to play than
to listen to. Prince rebounded in 2003 with the chart-topping
Musicology, a return to form that found the artist back in the
Top Ten, even garnering a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop
Vocal Performance in 2005. In early 2006 he was the musical guest
on Saturday Night Live, performing two songs with a new protégé,
R&B singer Tamar. A four-song appearance at the Brit Awards with
Wendy, Lisa, and Sheila E. followed. Both appearances previewed
tracks from 3121, which hit number one on the album charts soon
after its release in March 2006.
This bio courtesy www.allmusic.com
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